Cesc Fabregas left fuming, “When you concede these sort of goals, you cannot go anywhere”
Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas was left fuming after the Gunners went down 2-1 at the Dragão stadium, in Porto. Goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski was at fault in both goals, especially the first one as he failed to stop what seemed to be an easy cross to block.
Arsenal know that to go through to the next stage of the Champions League, a 1-0 win at the Emirates will be enough, but if the Portuguese side manages to score when the two teams face again on March 9, then three goals will be required.
Speaking after the game, the 22-year old captain said:
When you concede these sort of goals, you cannot go anywhere. They were schoolboy [errors] – what can you do? There are no complaints. After the second goal we went down, we are still a little bit soft in that aspect, sometimes we are not strong enough to lift ourselves. Until the second [Porto] goal we were having a good game.
It’s not the first time that Arsene Wenger’s goalkeepers came under the spotlight for making foolish mistakes. Spaniard Manuel Almunia was also heavily criticised this season, especially after failing to block Nani’s goal against Manchester United.
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Mannone is more better than fabianski.These two goals were goal keeper`s error. I saw mannone serious when he presented us in the champion games. He should be brought closer to the first team. Otherswise when we lose we get confused as fans. But they tried.
all three of our keepers are rubbish
mannone is a very good keeper with sharp reflexes. Arsene should build his confidence by playing him regularly. so to say all our three keepers are bad is an understatement.
doesn’t “to say all our three keepers are bad is an understatement” loosely translate to “all three of our keepers are worse than bad”?
ok, im gonna say it. With the exception of the ucl tie with ac milan a bit back, does anyone recall our skipper ever truely turning a big match in our favour? we all talk about cesc like hes our saviour. the truth is , he seems to dissapear on the biggest stage. hes going to go to barca in the summer and sit on the nou camp bench for the next few years just like his buddy hleb did. ive decided im ok with this.
Is our captain really talkin about schoolboy errors of our goalie? ya he was a nightmare, no question about it. but then again, where was our captain for 90 min? i dont know. he seems so mentally weak that every team now realizes that if they kick him a few times they can completly take him out of a match. he looked scared as schoolboy hiding from a bully in the second half.
Vermaelen is our captain next year and i think diaby takes over the role of center of the pitch playmaker. with the free transfer of chamhk and the 50 mil pounds we outta get for cesc we should be able to buy Lloris from Leon and a winger who isnt afraid to take on a defender ( i e nasri and rosicky). when did those guys become so scared to shoot?
Next year is our year. come on Arsenal
Conversely what was he to do in that game? Who is there for him to play off of? Bendtner? That’s not going to happen, Bendy is not prolific and there’s a question if he ever will. Even Rooney was a better player at 19 than Bentner is at 22. Without the chemistry and finishing of RVP there’s no one for Cesc to play to. Every team is going to crowd him and I don’t care who you are you can’t play your way our of 3-4 men barreling down on you ready to take you out. Cesc was a much better player when he has someone as intelligent as him to play with – there wasn’t too much of that today. Nasri and Rosicky are all too wide and it’s just Cesc and Bendy and Bendy will never have the touch and intelligence of an RVP.
Wenger needs to replace alot of dead weight on this team: Denilson, Silvestre, Djourou, Clichy, Bendnter, Eduardo, Vela, Fabianski, Almunia, Mannone. Problem is he doesn’t have that kind of money.
i agree with you 100% WC. my only point is that i feel we(fans and media), always give el capitan a free pass when these increasingly more frequent disaster games happen. we bash all of our other players and cesc comes out clean as a jif. if hes our captain and best player( i dont personally think hes our best) he needs to be held accountable for our on field successes and failures. as much as i hate chelsea n john terry at least when they f**k up terry comes right out front and ownes it.
Wenger will never admit hes at fault. Cesc can never do wrong. So then, who is ultamitly claiming responsibilty for this squad. Give Gallas back the arm band. at least hes not above critisism.
I think Fab had a pretty poor game but he needs an experienced player next to him in midfield.Denilson couldn’t take the pressure off a coke can. The manager heaps too much on Fab’s shoulders.
Again and again..we can not only blame the goal keeper, all 11 players were not good… cesc was out of the game, sol was acceptable, Danielson was rubbish, vermalin was great as usual with minor errors, nasri 30%, rosisky I believe he played well in positioning, sagna never completes a match with a decent cross, bendther is 60% good in passing this time, vela and welcott must go for loan next season (not mature enough).
As other site fans said, next season is ours… LL arsenaL
Next year? Where have we heard that one before, it’s not getting any funnier.
by the time these players reach the potential arsene wants- {his next step will be to sell them to man city, real, milan}.
we should’ve won that game. look at Man u they were outclassed but they still won in MILAN. Bendtner is the Cream of the Crop at Arsenal these days {he’s f*!ken sh!t}. Arsene needs to make re-adjustments. SAME OLD STORY EVERY SEASON!!!!!
well not only is “next year” getting ridicuouse but we actually seem to be getting worse with every season
Nope, I think I’m agree with Lucbyrnes. If we look at this line up:
van Persie Chamakh Arshavin
Diaby/Ramsey Song Nasri/Rosicky/Walcott
Clichy Vermaelen Gallas/Sol Sagna/Eboue
Hugo Lloris
I think we will win something with this squad….
I thought Bendtner did ok, as did most of the team but at this level ok isn’t enough.Do you really think Chamakh is going to come in and be amazing? He’s only scored 1 in 4 in the French league.We need world class.Not ok.
i agree. however let him have a shot. 1 in 4 is better than the 0 in 5 were gettin from our strike force
looking at the above line up, it seems you think cesc has already checked out.
yes maybe without injuries
up the gunners
Fabregas had a poor game but he was kickd abt 100times in dat match. I bet even d great ZiZou wuld av bn redcarded if he got dat kind of treatment. I am not comparing Cesc to ZiZou, bt yestday wasnt his fault. Porto was up for it yestday and we all know Estadio de Dragao has bn a fortress for them. Now the problems with arsenal: too many average players, but d same with ManUtd. Arsenal’s problem is all d 11 players dont always perform at the same time. Clichy has been terrible sinc he came back from his injury; Nasri is still having his injury hangover thus he doesnt play to his full potentials; Rosicky needs Arshavin and Fabregas always to bring out d best in him; Denilson and the Central Defenders are always vulnerable without Song; Bendtner is always a liability; I can go on and on. AW only needs to get a prolific striker in the mode of Van Nistelrooy, and a reliable goalkeeper, and Arsenal will become formidable. Talented midfielders are useless witout strikers dat make timely runs and get into good positions. I am not counting on nxt year until we are really out of this year, even after then, until Wenger makes summer sales and acquisitions.
I think mannone is better than fabianski.
The error is not somthing we deserved as an arsenal fan.
We definitely dont have an adequate cover if our key player go down injurd.
Even our key player is heavily defeated by man u and chelsea..
That shows we dont have the standard to challenge for the trophy..
Right now its only a dream to win the BPL.
Arsenal fan for life.
Prince
arsenal goalkeepers…what shit they are..and I really wonder how the heck can wenger let them play matches day in and day out…he is so bloody easy on them…the number of goals that arsenal goalkeepers have scored, i think it is a world record…it is so damn shameful that we have such idiotic freaks guarding our goals at the highest level…and before the match as well wenger said “fabianski will be a great keeper…every young keeper makes mistakes, even david seaman made some mistakes when he was 23-24, but later seaman turned out to be a great keeper”…i really beg to differ on what wenger said…david seaman was good, but not great…also how da hell can you glorify fabianski even before he delivers..everytime we say we are 2 young…consider Iker Casillas, he was of the same age as fabianski even younger when he took over the madrid goal keeping mantle..and he never conceded goals like what fabianski did yesterday….
i think arsenal do not deserve to win anything this season…if this is what you call fluid football, where we take the ball to opposition third and cannot fuking convert a single strike…in turn we get counter fuked every time…
anyways god save our souls…
that is what makes the difference between arsenal and the other top teams. Arsenal do not have strong and experienced players on the substitute bench to step in for the injured players as it was the case last evening. I don’t know what has happened to Nasri this season coz I no longer see him play with passion and confidence and he seems to get tired very quickly. Secondly Wenger please bring in quality and experienced players because it is from such players that the young players can learn, otherwise guys we should’t expect any trophy in years with the kind of players we have and what will follow is the much exodus of our star palyers to bigger clubs with ambition. definitely Cesc is going next season and there is no question about it coz it is frustration for someone like him to play for a losing team.
Arsene wenger is a stupid manager, how can he use that useless keeper instead of using 3rd keeper, then why must he remove rosicky the only experience player in d team nd bring in that useless walcot that suppose 2 b playing 4 leeds united. Infact is wenger is not sacked from our team i don’t see us winning anything in 10years 2 come. WENGER MUST GO…
I share your view on this. Wenger got to explain why he chose Fabiaski for this sensitive encounter. must he experiment all time. and the big issue is he does admits he’s wrong on any selection. Manone has proved his hands could be safer if he plays regularly with the first team: i got more confidence in the guy than even Almania let alone the floppy fabiaski. For the rest of the team, i think we got more schoolboys than star players than can compete for big trophies. The squad needs overhaul otherwise next season will be worse. We need stars that got the kind of confidence Vermalean and Ashavin display. Diaby is fast catching up. Pray van Persie will recover to join these guys. But there is still a big hole. Wenger spend money to fill this vacuum. We need to compete with confidence. If Asene cannot do this maybe he should let another guy try.
I hail the good boys
I have always said that we don’t have a goalkeeper,even a nursery school goalkeeper cannot allow these cheap goals that a pregnant woman can save. Wenger, we need experience players in our team. At least campbell have prove that point. Wenger buy players
to lucbyrnes, who says cesc fabulous does not turn up on the big stage?? -can you not remember cesc fabregas’s goal against AC Milan? -did you not see cesc fabulous come around to score 2goals in 22minutes with an injury? -or doesn’t that count because the premier league is not a big stage?are you crazy? Did you not see him set up adebayores famous bicycle goal that brought arsenal £25m What options did he have the last match? -maybe you should leave to barcelona buddy…
fab will go to barca this summer. get over it. and i do believe the first thing i said was “with the exception of the AC milan tie”. your correct it was a great pass to ade. two goals were nice in 22 mins. i dont doubt or deny his technical ability. my only point is that when we loose he never takes any of the stick for it. thats not what a responsible captain does. sorry if i ofended you my good buddy ultragun but thats how i feel. buddy
what the juventus match at highbury when he outplayed everyone in the then juve’s star team, also against madrid in the same year when he outplayed the great zidane> 0o
arsenal need a quality goal keeper… it just proves how amazing our team is to be 3rd in the league and in the last 16of the champions league without a goalkeeper.maybe we should hear arshavin out saying he can’t play up front, why don’t we put him as goal keeper? -he wouldn’t have picked up the ball or fumbled a cross, he’s not paraplegic…
First line-up was ok for me with exception of Clichy Denilson and Fabiaski. With a better goalkeeper, we would have won that game 1-0. The keeper is immature! Porto were fast and accurate. If they play 4-4-2 at Emirates, we will get problems getting a goal with Bendtner as a major striker! We were also sloppy after the second goal and attribute this loss of morale to the referee’s poor game! Can’t FIFA see that this man’s judgment is impaired? He aided France to World cup by failing to see Henry’s handball, and now aids Porto to win at home! IN ALL, OUR KEEPERS ARE ALL RUBBISH!!!!!!!!!!
wot do u mean Clichy, Denilson? Wuld u av prefered Traore or Silvestre to Clichy? Eastmond for Denilson?
I watched this game back in Africa. I and colleagues got surprised that Wenger would pick Fabiaski instead of Manone! I remember a colleague saying that with this keeper, we are gone before the kick-off! I am not an expert in soccer, but I think Wenger needs advice. Manone might lack the experience, but he is much better than Fabiaski.
Cesc was marked out and we are lucky that he is not injured. They all came out to destroy him despite the bookings they got over him. They would change rolls of attacking him one after the other! He is still the man Arsenal needs.
we can only apportion the blame to the entire team as we all know freekicks can be taken at the discretion of the referee and i only wonder why arsenal fans cannot remember henry’s freekicks against chelsea or charlton athletic sometimes ago when he took quick shots that left both teams’ players complaining but were allowed by the ref.This is only a question of being profession in style of play and be alert at all times and not assume that you are playing amateur teams.Definitely Fabianski should have held onto the ball long enough to allow our players to regroup and form a wall before porto took their freekick and that clearly shows the difference between us and them in terms of experience.
vincent enyeama is arsenals answer.hes got experience.watch out 4 this guy in dey forth coming world cup u’ll c wat i mean.wenger ur philosophy is great but give mannone a run of games and blive me almunia will step up know that this guy can tek him off.fabianski is 2 soft 4 my liking.he should be an actor not a goalie.
Wenger is a good coach, but with this set of players he can’t even win a cup of cofee. We cant compete in the transfer market and we cant even compete to keep the best of our players, the best one we have is about to leave and we will be left with the useless one. Are the only poor club in the land? We are keeping faith on people who are not going to pay them back. We have players who will sit on the bench in a championchip club as our first team player most of them dont worth our team. We dont have money yet we kept spending the litlle one we have on player that are useless to other team because if they find any useful one they will surely take him it is only young players that are willing to come to arsenal cos they see it as a good trainning ground to start you carier. It is time we reason and figour out the way forward. We ve surported the team enough to be pay back in this heartbreaking manner. We dont have to keep faith on players who don feel our pain.Wenger has fogorting that fans are the backbone of a team he is realing taken us for granted. I think we need a little protest to stamp our aurthority as fans.
The problem is not with the players,but with the club executives and the manager,wenger is someone that does not seek for advice coz he feels he knows everything good for club.,but we the fans knew more than you know…,
like pity said vincent enyeama is our answer he plays in istreal & is the league player of the year last season. manone shld be in goal 4 d next game til d end of the season. porto wil fall @ d emirates by 4- 0 bcos they ar nt good enough to stop us & cesc wil shine & score 2 goals in d 2nd leg next month.
The first goal was highly preventable even the goalkeeper of a primary school team. There was no pressure, no opponents nearby, nobody, not even a shot yet the keeper dived and pushed the ball facing the post! Until the manger decides to bring in a few quality players, this is how things will continue. Arsenal needs three new players- a good striker (even when Van comes back), a defender and an experienced goal keeper. Until he accepts this and acts, Arsenal cannot compete and win big competitions either now or in the near future
The trouble with Cesc as captain is hes not pushy enough.He has to let his players know when they are letting the team down because for sure Arsene Wenger will not-he’ll praise them and say “they are still learning” as he did with Fabianski. Cesc has enough on his plate without the added responsibility of the captaincy and it is affecting his play.Denilson seemed to be going ok for a while until I saw him lose the ball in a tackle and just slowly jog after his tackler.I thought “wheres the enthusiasm to regain the ball” and he does this all the time.I havent got an answer to the problems in this team but they surely need a wake up call for everybody from management to players.Sorry to be so negative but I’m getting more and more disappointed after every match.
well well well,here we go again with all the hating,the guys tried except for our goalie’s silly mistakes(mind you he saved some wonderful shots),i know we will beat them in the second leg,they are not that good were just lucky.
as for fabregas,he should stop complaining and blaming people,he was shit thru-out the match,his passes were off and was like he didn’t care. please if he wants out,let him just go instead of being a liability on the field. as a captain he should have gone to disturb the ref when the free-kick was given so that the team could fall back and help.
as for wenger,i’ll wait till the transfer window opens again and see what he will do before i pass my judgement. that ref should be banned,he didnt give ROSICKY a penalty and gave the ball to porto for a freekick that shouldnt have been.GUYS IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL IT’S OVER.
ur just too much olawale. pls tell fabregas…….if he goes, arsenal will be arsenal. afterall when veira left we did not go on relegation…so if he goes we’ll get a better midfielder. mr captain stop passing some unprofessional statements.
Arsenal but lets not forget its a two legged tie and we have an away goal. Arsenal fans are now so frustrated that every loss is a nuclear holocaust and a reason to sell the entire team and get a new one! You look at a team like Man U who even at three nil down sith minutes to go are still fighting. You dont sense this kind of spirit with Arsenal (team and fans). If Man U were 5 points behind Arsenal with 12 games to go no-one would be speaking about a top 2. Where is the love Gooners??
we need more experience player..
wenger, i think you should understand this.
We our current condition, we can’t achieve any trophy..
Not the end of the world people – We only need 1 goal and a clean sheet, not unrealistic when you look at the threat Porto were last night, if we didnt help them they would not have scored a single goal last night.
Will be a different game at Home, we will be stronger and will score at least 2 and keep a clean sheet – BRING IT ON !!!
“None of us can be perfect all of the time”
FFS!! Sold Wenger! He is running out of ideas!
I wonder the deafit this man will take balack was wright about him he always look for somene to blame insted of addresing what need to be address. He believe people asking him to buy are wrong but he hardly prove them wrong it time we fans show our frustratiön wenger is consern about we fan enough of this heartbreaking.
Cesc reminds me of Henry in his last days at the gunners. Sulking.
Enyeama is not good enough for the gunners.
I dont think the gunners do any tactical preparation for the opponents.
We hope we will pitch up and win with our style of play while the other
opponents have a plan.
Both keepers are crap. Next season we will see Wojciech Szczesny between the posts for us. Atleast he is looking good.
Has AW fallen out with Ramsey or what? I would have preferred him to Denilson.
same old sh*t we could have beaten porto but if u see the line up u just think wenger is not serious he has eboue on the bench (till 88th mins) when we a playing a physical game away, champions legue i could not believe it. When i saw fabiasky on goal what would u expect some poopeye goalie, when will wenger see that fabiasky is not worthy to be at arsenal and aluminia too.
then upfront Bendtner i nearly swicthed my telly off, because i knew what to expect. u call that a striker my a**. hw many chances do a striker need to score if it was drogba i wont say. I ask my self why does wenger not give mannone a chance he is far much better than those 2 stoogies. As much as i want arsenal to win i wait the return leg.
Don’t blame cesc. He was just disappointed with the result. What can he do if we have a suicide goalkeeper. Very frustrating! Arsenal can still go through easily with a win over porto at emirates by 3:0! I predict an easy win for gunners in three weeks!
fabianski was at fault for both goals! why are people getting annoyed with fabregas? or everyone else on the team? at the end of the day if we had mannone in goal we would have won at least 1-0 and probably 2-0. the only players i thought played bad were denilson(as usual), bentdner(off game) and nasri(lazy). you cannot expect fabregas to do everything. which players does he link up best with?? . . . song, arshavin and van persie who were injured. can you imagine telling lampard that he had to win chelsea a game without drogba, anelka and essien?!?
uhh yes. and he probably would. hes a proven winner and leader who dosent hide from critisism
POOR WENGER!!!!!
Every time he makes a public declaration of his faith in this team before a big game!!!! They immediately respond by thanking him with an ‘UP YOURS BOSS’ performance!!!!
Right before this one he said of Fabianski ‘ I believe he will play at the TOP, TOP, level’!!!! Well I think we can safely conclude that he did that all right!!!!!!
Remember last years ill fated CL 2nd Leg SEMI against the Mancs? Wenger said after the 1-0 loss in the 1st leg. ‘You will see the REAL Arsenal in the 2nd leg’!!!!! Well, Once again they shoved it right back in his face!!!! The REAL Arsenal showed up in no uncertain terms and hand delivered the usual 2 goals start to the opposition!!!! As a gesture of good will no doubt?
Add to that, and this latest howler the following:
Nani tricks his way past Clichy and Nasri then says ‘Hi’ to Dennilson while strolling to the bye line!!!
Park gets permission from Clichy and company to suggest he could be the next Johann Cryuff on his way to scoring a ‘Solo’ goal started from inside his own half!!!!!!
Very next game just 8 minutes in and Clichy leaves his ‘post’ and goes for a Sunday morning stroll and chat with his ‘New friend’, just as Malouda’s corner is arriving in the Penalty area with Drogba and Terry lurking???
Last night it was Fabianski’s turn, and with a lot of help from his defense too! At least they are consistent!!!!!!!!!
Anywhere, anytime, i prefer mannone to our firt 2 choices. Al d lad need is playtime 2 build up his confidence.
i think most people can agree that cesc is a net contributor to the club. he helps the team often and, at times, carries them.
the same can’t be said about arsenal’s keepers. with the exception of the epl clash against fulham, i can’t recall a single fixture this season where the keeper’s play was pivotal to a victory. i can, unfortunately, find several examples of keeper errors contributing to losses and draws.
goalkeeper is clearly a tough and intense position. it is not easy. but when i look at this list:
-van der sar
-cech
-given
-howard
-reina
-freidel
i see that these are the men minding the cages of the other top english clubs.
all of them play at a higher and more consistent level than the keepers in arsenal’s squad.
it is difficult to accept that a world class club with title ambitions doesn’t have someone of similar quality on its roster.
Realistically Guys!
If this team keeps performing like this how long more will it be before Fabregas decides to head back to Spain?
He has been in the 1st team for 5 or 6 years now. He is getting to the point where he is going to want to ‘win something’.
Wenger began this experiment in 2006. He signed young players to ‘build’ a team. Each year the progress he makes with these players is negated by a steady stream of them leaving the club at the end of each trophy less season. Once they get some experience they realize they will not win anything at Arsenal. So they become restless and leave. For every new young player who makes an impact, another such player who made an impact prior decides to move on!
Flamini was the worst case of that. In 2008 he established himself as the midfield anchor and the team showed real potential that year, then he upped and left in the close season? It’s only this year with Song that Arsenal have started to recover from that! Helb, Adabayor, Diarra, Toure etc did the same, even Henry! Regardless of how successful they have been collectively elsewhere. It suggests that Arsenal are always going to be an ‘evolving’ team, never the finished product.
well mate we are selling team who want to focus on selling key experienced an established players instead of keeping them to help us to win silverware example lehmann, gilberto silva, flamini! the same will happen with cesc sold for more than 30 million an the money will be kept in the bank! classic example adebayor and toure both costing 22million and 14 million thats 36 minimum an that aint even the full figure i can guarantee you and instead of getting a good keeper in we get nobody, instead of getting a winer we get nobody, so what do you expect the club want to finish the debt then pay for players
hey messi, im curious , do you think wenger will leave in the summer?
I know that question was directed specifically to Messi, as for me I am interested in the views of any Arsenal supporter because it actually is a very good question!
Will Wenger leave this summer?
Regardless of how much we like him or dislike him! I think that we have to conclude that him leaving is a distinct possibility! Why?
First off, a lot will depend on Fabregas, if he puts his foot down and says ‘thats it! no trophies again!!! I’m outta here’ and he sticks to that and walks, then I can see Wenger leaving out of frustration.
Second thing is this, I recall last summer Wenger specifically stating the following ‘I have never before worked as hard as I did in the season just finished (08-09)’. That sounded like the voice of someone who is frustrated because he has built this new young team his own way but he just cannot seem to get them to take that next and final step! Winning.
Building off of that statement, if he gets to the point where he feels he cannot do anymore to take them there. If he gets to that state of mind, then I think it is inevitable that he will quit because he may have to realize that he has indeed lost the plot, and become too loyal to some of these players to the point of believing in them regardless of how they have performed.
The old Wenger would stick with them Yes! But only to a point, he would not sacrifice winning to keep them. That is the difference
I think porto bribed the ref. that is why quick free kick to score when he ref was in wrong position to allow it.